


Struggling to Breathe

by mystiri1



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Character Study, Community: one_character, Gen, Human Experimentation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-31
Updated: 2010-10-31
Packaged: 2017-10-12 23:59:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mystiri1/pseuds/mystiri1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first breath is the hardest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Struggling to Breathe

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: 09. Oxygen

Sephiroth was used to the giant tubes, flooded with mako, in which he would often find himself placed for the course of a treatment. It should have been impossible to survive in such an environment: mako was a dangerous substance at best, and surely when suspended in its liquid form with nothing else to breathe, he should drown. But survive he did, and after a while he learned to relax a little. If he’d survived it once, he’d probably survive it again, after all. The same couldn’t be said of the procedures that occurred outside those glass cages.

Sooner or later, the tubes would be drained, and he’d find himself exposed to air, the shock hitting his system a little like a fish suddenly deprived of water. It was those first few moments he hated most: the first breath, the way oxygen would hit him a little like a high, followed by a cough that constricted his chest in a desperate spasm as his lungs tried to forcibly expel the last of the mako clogging their passages. He’d still be struggling to breathe when the questions began.

“State your name, rank and serial number.”

That had changed, recently. Since he’d started taking part in real missions, and not just training exercises, they’d asked this question to test his memory. When it was just the lab, he’d been expected to identify himself by his specimen number. This was a little harder, as his rank kept changing, but he’d allow it was probably a better indication of his short term recollection for that reason. And he’d heard other SOLDIERs identify themselves this way.

Somehow, that made him feel better about it; he preferred to think of himself as a SOLDIER rather than a specimen. SOLDIERs were impressive fighters, modified for that purpose. A specimen could be anything from himself to a single dead cell in a test tube.

“Sephiroth, lieutenant, S-X0089243,” he gasped out, hating the feeling of weakness that came from being anything less than fully in control of his body and its functions. He wondered how long it would be before they would send him out on another mission. He hoped it would be soon.


End file.
